A validation of resilient progression in the general population and in ballroom dancers

A subset of recent research in resilience appears to overlap with research in spiritual wellness and defines resilience as an innate force that drives individuals to seek self-actualization through harmonizing with a source of spiritual strength, likely including a form of the collective unconscious, nature, deity, or universal energy. This study examined the validity of resilience constructs and associated predictive paths that directly relate to the degree and nature of the connection one has with a source of spiritual strength. These constructs include essential resilience (sense of physical security), childlike resilience (ability to be playful and trusting), ecological resilience (environmental security), moral resilience (degree of comfort with one's value system), synergistic resilience (social focus and identity), noble resilience (purpose in life), divine resilience (identifying with a power or force beyond oneself), and orchestrational resilience (helping others to become aware of broader perspectives and sources of emotional, social, and spiritual strength). This study also examined social and ballroom dancing as a means of fulfilling resilient, or spiritual, drives.; Two hundred seventy-six college-aged adults from two Utah colleges were divided into a group of advanced social and ballroom dancers and a group representative of the general population. Each participant completed a questionnaire comprised of 14 measurement instruments. Structural equations modeling (SEM) allowed the strength of individual relationships within hypothesized structural models to be assessed.; Three nomologically valid models were established for the general sample and for men in the study. The model of best fit for the general sample retained the moral, noble, synergistic, childlike, divine, and orchestrational resilience constructs; essential and ecological resilience dropped out of the theoretical models. The model of best fit for the general sample was used as a baseline for comparative analysis between dancers and the general population. Differences were found between the general sample and dancers. Differences were also found between men and women in the study. Moral resilience predicted noble resilience and noble resilience predicted divine and orchestrational resilience in all valid models. Finally, progressive models appeared to provide a better fit to the data than a competing cumulative model.